Russia is fated to become center of Christian world – priest

Moscow, July 1, Interfax - Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplain, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations, said Russia is moving towards maximum self-reliance and must become the center of global Christianity.

"It is not accidental that many see Russia as a defender of Christian ideals and traditional moral values, as a country that provides a real alternative to the cult of the golden calf and to a suicidal understanding of what freedom is," Father Vsevolod writes in an article, published in the Rus Derzhavnaya newspaper on Monday.

Russia must start feeling it is the center of the Christian world, he writes. Only if it does will it become an accomplished nation. The rest is "first, petty and, second, self-destructive for it," the priest said.

"Russia has told the world in clipped terms that it can definitely speak its own language, the language of a self-sufficient and strong nation, whose traditions and experience give it the right to walk its own way, to defend its own ideas of how society should be set up, and also to offer it to the world," Fr. Vsevolod said.

However hard one tried to influence the state into following the opinions of narrow groups that link themselves to foreign trends and position themselves as the mouthpiece of "would-be Russia", or "other Russia," or "real Russia, nothing worked, he said.

"It is not accidental that we said in clear terms despite pressure coming from the West that we do want to protect children from early sexualization and from the propaganda of homosexuality. And we also said that support for foreign adoptions of Russian children is an extremely irrational step. We do not want these children, adopted by perverts, to lose the hope in which many of them were baptised, and to lose a normal life," Fr. Vsevolod said.

News and other data on this web site are provided for information purposes only, and are not intended for republication or redistribution. Republication or redistribution of Interfax content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Interfax.